Sunday, December 29, 2013

Reflections on 2013 and Thoughts on 2014

Another year! I just reread what I wrote about 2012 and all those events feels like a lifetime ago. I spent most of this year working on a construction site and really got to see things happen. While on site, I had more time in general and was able to get a lot of life things in order, such as getting my PE and started keeping track of my finances. After paying back all my student loans, I started putting money away in savings and finally ended 2013 with a fully maxed out Roth IRA.

Some highlights of this year:January - Started my site assignment. I think I need to write something about how my site experience has contributed to my engineering career overall. It has definitely broaden my experience.February - Adjusted to life on site. Finally got a smart phone.March - Moved to a new apartment on Hong Kong Island. Parents and brother visited. Xiumin visited.April - Went back to the US again and took the last of my PE exam. Passed everything and is officially a Professional Engineer in California!May - Attended Yalu+Mike's weddingJune - Met up with Yi in Hangzhou!July - Weekend trip to Singapore with roommateAugust - Hot, sweltering days at siteSeptember - Major geotech conference in Paris and then vacationed in Marseilles. There are definitely perks to working at a big office with money for "training" and a small professional society that can also support these kinds of activities. Back at the office.October - Weekend trip to Guangzhou and nearby areas.November - Adjusting back to life at the office. Celebrated Thanksgiving with friends.December - Really busy at the office...

Thoughts for 2014:

I really need to put some serious thought into how long I want to stay in Hong Kong. It's weird because there's not really a deadline or anything and I can really just leave anytime I want to. But there are a lot of things I like about living in HK and feel like I would really need to re-adjust to living in the US. More on this later.

I heard a podcast (either HBS or TED) about being grateful and that it really makes a difference if you list your blessings on a weekly basis. I might try that.. That would be a good motivation to write in this blog at least once a week.

Along with this whole moving/not moving business, I would really like to do more traveling in Asia while I'm here. Definitely need to do a long trip before I leave but in the meantime, short trips would do too.

As far as work goes, I will have been working 3 years full time in April/May. Hope to get another chartership status within this year.

That's it so far. We get New Year's Day off and since it's so cold here lately, I might stay around the house and write more.

My cat

Isn't he cute?!

Where's Lucy

Hong Kong

Upcoming Flights

Taipei

SFO to TPE United 871

Dep: Jan 4. 12:10pm

Arr: Jan 5. 6:25pm

Hong Kong

TPE to HKG. HK airlines 283

Dep: Jan 8. 8:25pm

Arr: Jan 8. 10:20pm

About Me

I am a geotechnical engineer working in Hong Kong. I recently graduated from Stanford's M.S. program in civil engineering - geomechanics in March 2011. I did my undergrad at MIT, also in civil engineering. This blog contains stuff about my every day life, thoughts, things I want to share, etc.

Highlights of this blog:

- I started this blog in May 2007 when I decided to do an internship in Germany and didn't feel like writing personal letters to my friends and family about my experiences in Europe.

- After that summer, I spent my junior year on an exchange program with the University ofCambridge where I also studied civil engineering.

- Coming back to MIT for my senior year, I spent a good part of it in a class called D-Lab where we learn about appropriate technologies for developing countries.

- In January 2009, I went to Sierra Leone to field test some of these technologies that we explored over the semester.

- I finished my studies at MIT in June 2009 and am now at Stanford.

- I spent a quarter of my first year at Stanford working on a tsunami evacuation project for Padang, Indonesia. I spent Summer 2010 in West Sumatra continuing this project.

- I am now working in Hong Kong at a design firm as a geotechnical engineer.